Industrial Packing and Crating in Vancouver

Troubles with Climate Controlled Trucking

Shipping goods that need climate-controlled containers had many challenges associated with it. Finding a trucking line that is capable of meeting your needs might be challenging depending on the size and scope of what you need moved. Here are some of the pitfalls to look out for and some ideas as to how reduce shipping costs if you need to move goods in climate controlled trucking.

What Makes Refrigerated Shipping Challenging

A trucking company that operates refrigerated (reefer) containers has to charge more for the service for several reasons, the first reason being that refrigerated goods need to be kept cool the entire time. If you are moving across country on a long drive, this means that even while the trucker is catching some sleep, the refrigerator car needs to be run. This increases the amount of gas that the truck uses. With diesel prices at the highest that they have been in years, this means increased costs for using reefer carriers.

Using LTL Carriers

If you are shipping full truckloads of goods that need to be refrigerated, there are actually a lot of good deals that you can get as the market has many carriers that are competitive. This means full truckloads can be bid against carriers for the best price. This isn’t so if you are not shipping a full load.

When having to choose a carrier that does LTL loads, there are many challenges. First and foremost, you may be constrained by the schedule of the carrier. Since you may be the smaller of the shipments, you may be subjected to very tight pickup and drop off schedules, or there may not even be any carriers operating in your desired timeframe.

Many local carriers may be able to accommodate your schedule, but since they are local, they may not be able to carry your shipment as far as it needs to go. This isn’t an issue if you are staying local, but long hauls could be an issue. You could attempt to chain local carriers together, but this usually ends up a logistics nightmare.

Finally, the costs of an LTL load are much higher than what you would pay for a full load. Combine the high costs with the shoddy schedules and it may make using an LTL carrier unreasonable for your business.

Shipping Using Full Load Carriers

One solution may be to use a full load trucking carrier, even if you are not shipping a full load. Many carriers charge by the mile. They don’t really care if you are shipping a full truckload or half a truck, they get paid the same. This means you may be able to use the highly competitive market to get a cheaper price on a full truck.

Another option is to combine loads. You may be able to combine shipments of your own, or if you know of other local businesses with needs and destinations similar to yours, you could combine with them to share costs.

Once you have your carrier lined up, contact Cratex group for all of your packing needs. Contact us today for a quote on your packing needs for your reefer shipment!